The Right Gift
by The Tambourine Man
Summary: Once again seeking a wedding gift for a friend, Pascal embarks on an unorthodox project.


Technically, it began with a letter. This was not an auspicious beginning; the letter, while neatly written on quality paper, was a standard wedding invitation reading, "You are cordially invited to the wedding of lord Asbel Lhant and Cheria Barnes" and some information on the date and location. The invitation was not at all a surprise to anyone who had known either of them.

And so it was that, for Pascal, the story truly began during a discussion with Hubert.

"Soooooo... this finally happened." said Pascal, waving the invitation around.

"Indeed." replied Hubert, making an especially poor effort at hiding his excitement. "Asbel and Sophie must be ecstatic, Cheria must be on cloud nine to be finished waiting, and mother might finally have something else to talk about."

"I've been wondering, what do you think I should get them?"

"Well-"

"And don't say a smile. I'll look pretty cheap if I do that again."

"Well, what about the other things you were considering giving Fermat?"

"Meh. None of those seemed like that good of an idea. Besides, they got destroyed last time my place caught fire."

"The last time?!"

"Yeah. So, any ideas?"

Hubert groaned, knowing that trying to get Pascal off a topic that caught her attention was an exercise in futility. "Listen, marriage means the beginning of a new life for two people. There are new experiences and joys, but also new problems. If you want to think of a gift, perhaps you should consider what difficulties Asbel and Cheria might face together."

"That's pretty good, Hu. You been thinking more about marriage?"

"I... buh... well... somewhat..."

"Is it the president's daughter again?"

"No!" Hubert seemed to shrink after his outburst; his shoulders fell, his voice became quiet, and he seemed to have trouble meeting Pascal's eyes, "There is a girl a like, and I've tried to tell her before. But no matter what I say, she simply doesn't realize how I feel about her."

"Hey, Hu, don't get down about it. I'm sure she'll figure it out eventually."

Hubert's only response was to turn and storm away. Pascal feared she may never understand what was going through his head.

Over the next few weeks, Pascal was often too busy to think much about the wedding. It came back to her focus when she received a second letter. This one was much less standardized; an apology from Asbel to his would-be guests, that matters had required his fiancee to travel, and that the resulting scheduling problem meant that the wedding would be delayed for three months.

That was something of a surprise. The largest one came three weeks later, when Pascal was walking through the main plaza of Zavhert on her way home.

"Hey! Pascal! Over here!"

Waving to her from across the way was Cheria. Pascal was at her side in an instant, eager to catch up with her friend.

"Cheria! Ohmigosh, how are you! How is everyone? What are you... doing out... here..." Pascal's exuberance faded quickly as she began to realize that the matter that brought Cheria here couldn't be anything good.

"Hey, don't get so down like that. But yeah, I didn't originally come out to Fendel to see you. There was an earthquake in the east, and some of the smaller villages got hit pretty hard by it."

"So... how did it go?"

"It's... complicated. We did what we could to help heal and rebuild, but there were a lot of people who just couldn't go back. They'd lost too much, or they were too scared of it happening again, or the land had changed to much to build on. So we helped some of them relocate here."

"Hmmm... Hey, is this why you guys rescheduled the wedding? Congrats on that, by the way."

Cheria seemed to tense at the subject. "Yeah... we both thought this was more important..."

"What's wrong? Don't wanna tie the knot?"

"It's not that I don't want to... I'm just worried about it. I want to be with Asbel and Sophie, and Lhant will always be my home. And I wouldn't dream of giving up work with the relief organization. But I don't know when I'll be needed somewhere else. Spending a lot of time apart is hard on a relationship. And I just keep wondering... What if we can't be happy with it? Or what if someone gets hurt and I'm not there to help them?"

There was silence for a moment. Then Cheria let out a sigh. "Listen to me, going on about myself at a time like this. What about you? How have you been?"

"Workin' on the hot water system. Y'know, makin' sure the dongles are combobulated and the thingajigs are able to go woom. Just the usual stuff."

"I... see... Do you mind if we go inside? I'm starting to get cold out here."

"Sure. You can come crash at my place tonight."

"Oh. Thanks, but... maaaybe we can go to the inn instead? I already have a room there, and it's a lot closer." And cleaner, she added to herself.

The next day, Pascal asked for time off, saying she'd just come up with a new project she wanted to pursue.

Victoria had been engaged in paperwork in her office. That had come to an abrupt end with a voice from her window.

"Dang, that was a bust."

Victoria was on her feet in an instant, ready for battle.

...which would likely be unnecessary since the intruder was just one of Asbel's friends.

"What are you doing in here?"

"I was testing out my new doodad, but it didn't work the way it was supposed to. So, I ended up here." Pascal looked around Victoria's office. "Hey! I think that globe could really help. Can I take it?"

"Would it keep you from coming back?"

"Probably."

"Well, in that case, would you please take it and GET OUT OF HERE!"

A gentle breeze blew through the curtains, bringing fresh air into the immense study of the Lord of Lhant. It brought with some of the sounds of the surrounding town, but the man occupying the study was too absorbed with the paperwork before him to pay it much mind. It was only when a knock came at the door did he notice his surroundings.

"Come in."

The visitor was a familiar face. "Lord Asbel."

"Oh, Hey Bailey. What's up?" Asbel had all but entirely given up standing on ceremony.

"We have a... situation... at Lord Windegard that requires your assistance."

Any hint of laxness was gone from Asbel in an instant. "What's wrong? Is it some monster, or-"

"Nothing of the sort. But, perhaps you should come with me. I don't exactly know how to explain this"

Asbel, welcoming the opportunity to stretch his legs, followed without further comment.

The first thing Asbel saw was the large crowd gathered around Lhant's largest Windmill. The second was a soldier on a stepladder, desperately trying to grab something off the windmill's blade. And that led him to the third thing he noticed-

"Pascal!? What are you doing here?"

Sure enough, the engineer was clinging to one of the windmill's blades. Despite her precarious position, she seemed rather calm.

"Hey Asbel! I was testing something out and I ended up dawoahwoahwoah-" Pascal found further conversation difficult as the soldier plucked her off the windmill. Asbel watched in bemusement as the soldier attempted climb down the ladder with the flailing Pascal in tow.

Asbel made a note to himself to make sure the soldier was payed extra for this.

Pascal, delighted to find out her invention had worked, let out a loud whoop.

Asbel, Cheria, and Sophie were very unhappy that she was making so much noise in their house in the middle of the night.

The day of the wedding, between an incident with a lost ring, several groups of wedding crashers, a tardy bride, and one guest who had to be forcibly bathed, proved to be quite memorable. Somehow, the ceremony came and went. It was at the reception in the garden of Lhant Manor that Pascal presented her gift.

Cheria, her anxiety having died down and the excitement of the situation setting in, was eager to enjoy some of the food. And so she was a bit confused when Pascal rushed over to her and thrust a small machine into her hands.

"Oh. What's this?"

"Its your wedding present!" said Pascal, grinning from ear to ear.

"Okay. But what does it do?"

"Remember that time we fought my sister, and she had that machine that teleported one of her veres...es to her? Well, I got one of the backups she made, popped it open, bopped this one doodad-"

"Um, Pascal? Maybe you could give me a less... technical... explanation?"

"You push the button, and it sends you to Lhant Manor."

"It... does?"

"You said you were worried about being away from home so much, yeah? Well, if you're in danger, or something happens in Lhant, or you're getting homesick, now home's always going to be a push of the button away for you. It's like... my way of helping you guys stay together."

Not for the first time that day, Cheria found herself starting to cry. "Pascal... Thank you so much. That was so sweet of you. This is a great gift."

"Yeah, I'm pretty awesome. Especially if you like my plan B that much."

"Yeah- Wait, what? This wasn't your first idea?"

"Yep! I wanted to build a Mecha-Cheria, but that was taking too long, so I slapped this thing together in a week. Still wasn't THAT easy though. I had to break into my sister's lab, grab a bunch of overpriced supplies for the road, hock my awesome new globe to the Turtlez-"

"Oh, look, it's time to cut the cake. Here, I'll make sure you get an extra-big piece."

Pascal returned to the table she shared with her sister, eager to enjoy her piece of cake.

"So, you broke into my lab and stole one of my teleporters."

"Yep!"

"To make a present for your friend?"

"That's right!"

"And your "present" is the sort of invention that would drastically alter the world if it became widespread?"

Pascal made an unintelligibly-cake-muffled-yet-affermative-sounding response.

At this, Fourier slammed her hands on the table in front of her. "Pascal! Do you have any idea what you've done?"

"A-are you mad again, sis?"

"Of course I'm mad! Now the towels I bought them are going to look really lame!"

**Author's Note: First of all, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to read this story.**

**As some of you may remember, this isn't my first Tales of Graces fanfic. My first attempt was just supposed to be a bit of pointless silliness. But due to a flawed premise and a lack of planning, it was pretty bad. I've taken it off the site and don't have any plans to redo it.**

**This is my sophomore fic, and I think I did much better with it, though I'm not entirely sure about some parts of it. I'd love to hear what you have to say about it, though.**

**And this probably won't be my only Tales of Graces fic, either. I've got ideas for three longer, more action-y stories. And, as you may have inferred from one of the throwaway lines, I also want to write one about Asbel and Cheria's wedding. **


End file.
